I forgot to tell you about this before I sodded off to Bosworth and Wales. Me and Paula (Wizzley's WordChazer) met up in real life at a gaming convention. She was working. I was playing the games and drinking her wine. *grin*

It was great to finally meet her after years of writing on the same sites (three of them to date, with us both firmly entrenched on Wizzley now). She's as lovely IRL as she appears to be on the forum, and VERY deaf aware too. Which is a good job really....

As for the Revival convention - WOW! She was there representing the Centre for Computing History. I arrived expecting to view a quiet exhibition of ancient computers, which was fine by me. I'm a historian AND a computer geek, so it ticked two boxes. What I didn't anticipate was walking into a MASSIVE collection of just about every computer game from the 1970s until today. Each one ready to be played on consoles that I hadn't seen in decades.

Paula and I played Pong on a black and white television. I then proceeded to game my way through various levels in the evolution of Mario, from an ancient Atari through Super Mario 64 and others besides. I was shocked at how rusty I was on some, and how much it had changed over the years, half without us really noticing. To my eternal shame, I got Mario killed by a goomba on the first jump in a 1990s version; left him stranded in a moat in the 64; and couldn't even work out how to get him onto the next level in the 1980s one.

What happened to all those skills gained in my misspent youth?! They must have been in the brain cells that I killed off in the early 1990s, when the misspending went into overdraft.

Paula, on the other hand, can game like a champion. I hand any pixel crown that I could have ever pretended to own over to her.

Trying? No, there's already one here. We're just not old enough for it to have gone to the next level. I've been on enough forums to know that it happens holistically, given time.

Me and Paula meeting up really will be the first. I'll bet my Mario 'Schroom tin on that.

It might help to know that I wasn't in Bosworth and Wales alone just now. I was with an ever-growing gang of people from a very well-established gaming forum. Ever-growing because a handful of us decided to meet up a few years back, and that's become an annual thing now.

We began as names on the internet somewhere back in 2006/7, all gamers chatting via text as we played in our MMORPG. A decade on, we're real people holidaying together. This weekend, there were people from all over Britain, plus three Dutch and one American, all camping in a field. Next year, a different American is talking about coming, as is an Irishman, plus the Dutch are all coming back. The British contingent are always getting bigger, as it's happening in our country. (Though there are rumblings about Amsterdam being a vague Place To Meet In The Future.)

That's just one forum. I've lost count of the Pagan forum meet ups I've attended in the past. The last twice I flew to America, it was to meet/stay with people I'd long since befriended on internet forums.

And it's only a matter of time before I bump into Frank. We keep visiting the same places, just missing each other, and only finding that out when we're both back here in Wizzley. Yesterday I came back from Llandudno to find that Frank had just posted an article about his own trip to Llandudno. We were probably there at the same time!

I have to say it is possible I may also bump into Frank, given that he's in my adopted home town from time to time.

I'm usually also up for meeting anyone in London, but it didn't work out with Sheri this time as we were already booked (was that the same weekend as Revival?)

If anyone wants to roll up to the Centre for Computing History at any time, I'll be happy to meet there.

Amsterdam would be good too. You and your other gaming group need to go there, Jo.

Revival was a really good weekend all in all, even though I did miss out on Archer MacLean in the end. I discovered (with Jo's help) the company of Mike Porter, formerly of Ocean Software, with whom several very interesting hours were had. And John Romero (Doom) held the door open for me on Saturday night... *silly grin*.

Hopefully this is the first of many UK-based Wizzley meetings. I have met my writing contacts before, but meeting Jo was a whole other league, as we had a lot more in common than simply writing. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Jo. Hope to see you again next year there, and hopefully before then if time, money and timetables permit.

Described by one of my clients as 'a literary grammarian', writing, researching and reading are requirements for sanity, at least this side of the keyboard.

We should have a giant Wizzley meet-up in Austin, Texas. Everything's here: an incredible variety of nightly live music, the best barbecue ever, gourmet vegetarian restaurants, the most beautiful countryside with carpets of wild flowers in spring and the juiciest peaches in summer, and ... well, moi.

We should have a giant Wizzley meet-up in Austin, Texas. Everything's here: an incredible variety of nightly live music, the best barbecue ever, gourmet vegetarian restaurants, the most beautiful countryside with carpets of wild flowers in spring and the juiciest peaches in summer, and ... well, moi.

I'm up for that!

And you forgot SXSW too...

Described by one of my clients as 'a literary grammarian', writing, researching and reading are requirements for sanity, at least this side of the keyboard.

We should have a giant Wizzley meet-up in Austin, Texas. Everything's here: an incredible variety of nightly live music, the best barbecue ever, gourmet vegetarian restaurants, the most beautiful countryside with carpets of wild flowers in spring and the juiciest peaches in summer, and ... well, moi.

Great idea! I only would have to learn how to receive a visa for the USA before (and I guess the bureaucratic process would take some time too).

@ JoHarrington and Wordchazer: Me too, I like the pictures from your meet-up. I am not so interesting in games, and I think I would be a little bit overwhelmed by the impressions when I would spend many hours at this area surrounded by the crowd. But it looks like you had a lot of fun - and this is the essential.